A Strange Man in a Strange Land
by RevanMueller
Summary: A man in red wakes up in a strange forest and discovers that he has become part of what he thought was a simple video game. Follow Urs Reisläufer the Barbarian, a german player trying to find his place in two new worlds. The world of Elder Tale, and Japan. Rated M for video game styled violence, mild swearing, and some suggestive content.
1. Chapter 1

** Intro: So this is my first fanfic and I would love review, opinions and advice. I'm going to try and update at least twice a week. I'm writing this what I think is called 3****rd**** person limited, which means that you as the reader will know the thoughts of the person who's perspective I'm writing, as well as everything they see and hear. I'll try to fact check as I go, just know that there are going to be some things that I change or add on purpose. I'm going off of the anime series. Just for clarity know that whenever I have something in quotation marks, unless I indicate that it's someone talking it's the character thinking something. I haven't decided on all the pairings yet. I'm set on Shiroe X Akatsuki, because I personally find their pairing adorable. I've decided whom I'm going to pair my OC with, but I'm not going to tell ya! As I continue the story I'll take input on other character pairings.**

**Chapter 1: A Strange Man in an Unknown Land.**

**Day of the Apocalypse, Urs perspective.**

"OWWWWWWWWWWWW!" The man sighs loudly upon regaining consciousness and sitting up. After a few moments different thoughts began to race through the man's head. "Calm down Urs, pick some questions and try to answer those first." He mutters to himself. After some careful thought he settled on three questions. "Okay, first; why does my head hurt so much, two; where the hell am I, three; what the hell is going on?" He says quietly to himself. He decides to ignore the throbbing at the back of his head and focus on figuring out what's going on. Urs rights himself and out of habit begins to dust himself off. He gets to his arms and pauses, stunned by what he sees "What am I wearing?" He begins to pat himself down to feel what he's wearing "Why am I wearing armor, and why doe it look like the armor that my Elder Tale character wears?" Off in between the trees around him he sees what appears to be a lake "Perfect! Natures mirror." He bursts into a full sprint and immediately trips causing a puff of dust and a loud thud "The hell? Okay, so no running until I figure what's going on."

Upon reaching what is indeed a small lake, he stands over the edge and looks down into the water at his reflection. It takes his mind a moment to comprehend and accept what he sees "….Okay, I don't just have gear like my character. I am my character!" His mind begins to race again with questions. The most prominent being, what the hell is happening? He sits down to ponder on the dilemma. Little does he know that not far from him, thousands of others are waking up and coming to the same conclusion that he was.

**The next day, afternoon**

After figuring out how to and practicing moving properly, he successfully mastered the rather mundane skill. Urs decided to practice combat, because he knew that eventually he would have to fight something. He quickly discovered that the normal method of selecting a skill or spell from a list no longer worked. He tried calling out the name of the skill as he had seen in many cartoons, and that too didn't work. Frustrated, Urs sat down on a boulder and glared at the large stick he was using as a weapon "How the hell do I use my skills I don't rely so much on my skills, but still. Fighting anything is going to be a major pain." He thought back to the times when his skill Burst of Speed had saved him in a fight. Upon the mention of Burst of Speed in his thought he noticed his MP instantly drop. "That's it! All I have to do is think of the skill and it activates! I'd test out my other skills, but I can't use half of them out of combat anyway. Now I just need to figure out how to draw my weapons." His thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream. "I know that kind of scream, that's fear." He rushes off in the direction of the scream, the effect of Burst of Speed allowing him to cover the distance in mere moments. He hides behind a tree nearby to see what happening. He sees two thugs; he can tell that they are players. As far as he can tell one is a Swordsman of some kind and the other is a ranged fighter "A melee and a Ranger." On the ground in front of them is an orange haired woman wearing glasses in what seems to be a light purple business suit. She is visibly scared and Urs can tell why, she is a bard. As a support class Bards lack major solo combat abilities. The Swordsman has a curved blade pointed at her and the Ranger has an arrow trained on her head. The Swordsman raises his blade preparing to strike, suddenly in Urs' eyes time seems to slow and a feeling comes over him. He doesn't know why, he just knows that he must protect her "I hope this works!" He takes hold of the weapon handle on his back, calls upon Burst of Speed, charges towards the melee class, and screams "LEERE KLINGEN!"

**The day after the Apocalypse, morning, Henrietta's perspective.**

Being an intelligent person it didn't take long for Henrietta to figure out what had happened to her the day before, the day of the Apocalypse. She was one of the many who found themselves inside the city of Akiba. She decided to venture outside the city to see how much the environment had changed from the last time she played Elder Tale. She felt confidant as she knew that any creatures she encountered outside the gates would be low level, plus one of her guild members had shown her how to use her abilities earlier that morning. She gathered up her equipment and headed out the gate.

**The day after the Apocalypse, afternoon.**

Staring down a sword is unnerving even on the best of days, but it's terrifying when you've been ambushed by two vicious looking thugs the day after finding yourself in your video game character's body. Were this the game she wouldn't be scared of being hurt or dying, but she had no idea what would happen to her now. The Swordsman raised his weapon in preparation to strike. She turns her head to the side and sees a red blur quickly approaching. As the Swordsman begins his swing she hears the blur yell "LEERE KLINGEN!" Expecting the blade to connect she closes her eyes, instead she hears a resounding clang and opens her eyes to see a man in red armor blocking the blow. The thugs are stunned by his sudden appearance, in the few moments before they attack he looks to her and says in a calm and soothing voice "Are you okay?" She nods her head, his tone changes and he tells her "Good, now stay down."

She does exactly as she is told, and what she sees next is stunning. Whatever had allowed the Armored Man to move so quickly was still in effect, because he covered the distance between himself and the Ranger instantly. Before the enemy Swordsman could react, the Armored Man had killed the Ranger "How did he attack so fast, with such a huge sword?" As the Ranger's body disappeared the Armored Man turned to face the Swordsman he started to walk towards him, his huge sword resting on his shoulder. The Swordsman's whole body is shaking; the Armored Man is now face to face with the Swordsman. The Armored Man stares at him for a few moments then quietly says "Run." The Swordsman turns and runs screaming "Monster! It's not human!" The Armored Man sheaths his weapon, the sword disappears into the sheath which is obviously too small for the abnormally large weapon.

He turns and walks over to her, and offers his hand to help her up. She accepts, once she is standing he asks her "Are you okay?"

"I'm alright. I have to know, how did you do that?"

"Do what?" he asks.

"Move and attack so fast?"

"Oh that? Sure, but maybe we should go somewhere safer miss umm…."

"Henrietta and you're right, come on town is this way."

She heads in the direction of Akiba, the Armored Man following close behind her. They walk in silence and a final thought crosses her mind "Who is he?"


	2. Chapter 2

**A note. I forgot to say at the beginning of my first chapter that I DO NOT own any of Log Horizon, but the OC is mine. Also as I need to I will hop into 3****rd**** person omnitient when I feel you as the reader need to know something. As always speech will be surrounded by " and thanks to a reviewers idea internal thoughts will be surrounded by '**

**Day After the Apocolypse Urs's perspective**

As he followed Henrietta, the rush from the fight began to fade. He started to go over the fight in his mind 'I'm surprised that this Henrietta trusts me, then again I did save her life.' He let out a quiet chuckle 'Oops!' he waited a moment 'oh good she didn't notice' His mind went back to the fight 'I was lucky that calling out my weapons name allowed me to draw it, otherwise that fight would have gone sideways fast. I wonder if that'll work for all my weapons?' his thoughts were interrupted when Henrietta suddenly stopped in front of a huge stone Archway.

"Here we are, welcome to Akiba." She said smiling.

"Aki-wha? Don't you mean Berlin?"

"Berlin? Why would this be Berlin? We're in Japan. Wait, are you not Japanese?"

"No! I'm German!"

"German? Then how are you." He held up his hand to stop her.

"Nevermind, let's get in the city so we don't have to worry about anyone or anything attacking us. Then we can sit down and figure this out"

she nodded and continued into the city. As they entered he immediately noticed all the weird looks he was getting. 'strange. It's like these people have never seen a barbarian before, then again it could be the fact that I'm wearing full Red Dragon Plate' he chuckled. He thought maybe it was how he appeared physically, he was just shy of 7 ft, or it could be that the woman in front of him looked like she was ready for a quarterly business meeting while he looked ready for all out war

He walked up to her side and tapped her shoulder.

"So…. Where are we headed?" He asked.

"To my guild hall. It's the only place where I know we can talk in private, and since I imagine we are going to have a long, confusing conversation we are going to need the privacy."

"Hmm, makes sense"

He kept walking when he felt her hand on his shoulder.

"what's up?"

"Hold on my guildmaster in calling."

He waited as she put her hand up to her ear as if she were using a cell phone. After a moment her hand fell to her side 'It must be serious, that's a pretty worried look for such perfect face. Wait! Perfect face, the hell am I thinking?'

"So, what's going on?"

"We need to get to my guild hall now! One of my other guild members is in trouble!"

"Okay, how far away is your guild hall?"

"About 10 minutes if we run."

The corner of his mouth turned up into a smirk, "10 minutes for you maybe, Bought 3 for me. Can you guide me there?"

"How can you get there in 3 minutes?"

He suddenly leaned over and picked her up, holding her like a new bride.

He chuckled and said " you'll see, just tell me where to go"

On that word he activated Burst of Speed and darted forward. Henrietta let out a scream. After a few moments he spoke "Open your eyes silly, you need to see!"

**Perspective shift here, just fyi**

Henrietta opened her eyes, the world around her was passing in a blur. "is this what you used when you saved me?"

"yes" was his quick reply "Now guide me!"

"okay, okay!"

As she guided him to the guild hall she wondered 'Why does this feel so comfortable?' He head was rested on his shoulder and her arms were around his neck. 'I wonder what he looks like without the helmet? Is he handsome?' She paused 'Wait, why do I care' a blush began to creep her face and Urs noticed it.

"You alright Henrietta? I can slow down if you'd like?"

She blurted out a response "No! I'm fine, just keep going we are almost there"

A few moments and directions later they were at the guild building. Henrietta motioned towards a door, Urs put her down and followed her. After passing what seemed like 20 identical doors in a seemingly endless hall of doors Henrietta stopped. "Here we are." She slightly opened the door, before Urs could move she spoke up "Umm… can you wait here until I call you?"

"Why?"

"Because my Guild Master has a habit of tackle-hugging people she thinks are big and cuddly, and you certainly fit the bill"

"Oh? I'm big and cuddly am I?" Urs folded his arms in mock annoyance.

She turned her head down, a light blush showing on her checks. "Well… umm… ah.. It's not that I think, or that you are… never mind!" Obviously flustered she slammed the door.

"Well that was fun" Urs's thoughts began to wonder again. What was it that he felt when he saved her? At the time it was like a voice in the back of his mind asking, no commanding, him to protect her. His thoughts were interrupted by Henrietta's voice "Come in" He entered the room and not 2 seconds after he closed the door did something slam into him, knocking him to the ground. The whatever-it-was began to nuzzle up against his helm. Urs heard a woman's voice "He is big and cuddly!"

"Marielle! I didn't say cuddly, I just said he was big!"

Urs looked down and saw a blonde woman clinging to his chest. He looked to Henrietta "I take it she is your Guild Master?"

Henrietta had her face in her palm. "Yes… this is Marielle, my Guild master"

"Hmm, let's see if I can get out of this blonde bear hug so we can have a proper introduction."

Before Henrietta can speak Urs stands up and lifts Marielle off of him by her shirt.

"Woah! You didn't say he was so strong!" Marielle exclaimed just dangling there.

"I didn't know!" Henrietta said back. 'But that would explain how he was able to use such large weapon. Is he muscular under all that armor?' She began to blush 'Wait, again why do I care?' Forcing down her emotions she says "How about I get some tea, and we can all sit down and talk.

**Author's note:**

**So I apologize to the 3 odd people who actually seem to like my story. There was a bit of upheaval in my life not long after I posted my first chapter. I'm going to update this story as often as I can. I work 2 jobs so I don't exactly have lots of free time. Also to anyone who is German and speaks and reads it, I apologize in advance for anytime I may use wrong. I'll never have Urs speak in german, but I will have him call out weapon names in German.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey all you folks who have favorited my story, y'all are awesome by the way, I need some advice again, so if you want to PM it to me or leave it in the reviews that would be awesome. Here's the question. So I have like 15 ish fanfic ideas bouncing around in my head, it's part of why I never get anything out there, I can't pin down an idea long enough to write it. So should I try and force my brain to write more for this Fic or write down pieces of my other fic ideas as they come to me? Also how do you all feel about the length of each chapter, is 1000-1500 good, or should I go bigger like 3000+? Anyway on to the story. P.S. I don't own Log Horizon**

Silence blanketed the room even as Henrietta brought their drinks over, somehow managing to set down the tray without making a sound. The group grabbed their respective drinks and for a few minutes sipped quietly, until Urs finally broke the ice.

"So, what exactly would you two like to know?"

Henrietta set her cup down, her hands folded in her lap. "Well for starters just tell us about yourself, I mean who you are in this world of course." Urs tipped his head in acknowledgement.

"Alright then. My name is Urs Reisläufer, I'm a level 90 Barbarian and Weapon Master."

Marielle chimed in, "What's a Barbarian? Oooh and what's a Weapon Master?"

"They're my class and sub-class, does the Japanese version of Log Horizon not have this system?"

"It does. I think Marielle was asking about your classes themselves, we don't have your two classes. Can you tell us about them, please?"

"Sure, so my class is Barbarian. Barbarians are similar to most tanking classes. We have high health, damage reduction, and defensive stats like parry, dodge, etc. In fact most Barbarians actually have more health than tanks, but we lack any real tanking abilities."

Henrietta cocked an eyebrow, "Exactly how much health do you have?"

"25,724."

Marielle choked on her tea and sputtered, "25,000! None of the tanks we know have anything even close to that!" Urs chuckled, "I'm not too surprised, however there is a reason for it. I only have about 5,000 MP, and my lowest cost skill uses 1,500. A Barbarian's large health is more to compensate for the low MP; we have a passive skill called Self-sacrifice. It allows us to use our health instead of our MP to use our activated skills. Like the one I used when I carried you, Henrietta."

Marielle turned to Henrietta with a sneer, "Oh ho ho, he carried you huh? How did it feel being in his big strong arms?" A fierce blush came over Henrietta's face, "It-it-it-it was only for a few minutes and I was guiding him here!"

"Oh leave her alone Marielle. Anyway do want me to continue, or are you going to keep teasing her?" It was marielle's turn to blush, "yes please."

"Okay, to answer the question I know you want to ask Henrietta. The skill I used on that ranger is called Multi-strike. It gives me multiple weapons strikes over a short period of time, about ten in two seconds however there is tradeoff. Each strike only does half of my normal weapon damage, and I can only hit the same target twice in a row. The skill is really meant to take on multiple opponents."

Henrietta raised her hand, "when you rushed to umm, save me, you yelled something. What did you say?"

"What did I say? It was my sword's name."

"It's name, why did you call it out?"

"After the Apocalypse I quickly found out that to draw my weapons from my omni-sheath I have to call out the weapon name."

"What's an omni-sheath?"

"It's a magical weapon sheath that can hold up to eight weapons of any type, I currently have six in mine."

"Six?"

"Well yeah, you didn't wonder how I fit such a huge sword into the sheath?" Again Henrietta blushed, "Well yes I did?"

"And now you know."

Marielle piped up "You've told us a bit about your character, but what about you personally?"

"Miss Marielle I mean no offence, but I don't know either of you that well, maybe in time as we become friends I'll tell you two about myself." With a look that could rival a sad puppy Marielle said, "Okay, I guess"

"Thank you. Now, Henrietta you said that there was an emergency of some kind. I know you said that we are waiting for someone, but could you tell me what exactly is going on?"

"Of course! One of our guild members is trapped in the city of Susukino. I've called some friends to form a party to rescue her."

"How exactly did she get trapped in a city? I don't recall there being any sort of game rule or spell that would keep someone in a city."

"A local guild leader has started a manhunt for her, I don't really know why. But she cant leave the city, because if she steps foot past the gates his guild members will attack and kill her." Urs sighed, "And if she dies she will resurrect at the church in Susukino, where he will have people waiting to grab her, yes?" Henrietta nudged up her glasses, "Yes, most likely." Urs stretched his arms above his head, "And I guess you want me to help?" Marielle nodded. "Believe I want to help you, but I don't think I can." Urs put up his hand before Marielle could speak. "It's not that I don't want to, I do. You two have been nothing but kind to me, and you don't even know me. But I've done quests similar to this, and if there is one thing I've learned it's that teamwork is crucial. These friends of yours also don't know me. There is no way they will trust me enough to work with them, and I'm assuming we don't have time to work up to that level of trust. Besides I still haven't quite adjusted to this world yet I honestly don't feel ready for real combat." Both Henrietta and Marielle looked dejected. Henrietta sighed, "I supposed that's wise, but would you at least be willing to meet our friends and at least discuss the plans to save our guild member?" Urs looked directly into Henrietta eyes and thought to himself 'something tells me in no time at all you could ask me to anything and I would say yes without question.' "Of course. Frankly the more friends I have in the strange land, the better." At this Henrietta smiled.


End file.
